


Second Chances

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bunker Fluff, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, Flashbacks, Gabriel is a Little Shit, Happy Ending, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 02:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5521505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>after the events of meta fiction, gabriel gets a second chance at life, a second chance at relationships, and eventually, a second chance at celebrating christmas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Chances

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aria_Lerendeair](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria_Lerendeair/gifts).



> So this is my first time writing Team Free Love, I have no idea how it's done and I also had no idea where I was going with this fic when I started it, but I had the BEST time writing it (there will definitely be a smut version appearing at some point.) As promised, this is a Christmas fic with a happy ending, unlike what I wrote yesterday, and it's also my gift to Aria for the Dicklings Secret Santa exchange!! Hope you enjoy it <3

It's six o'clock in the morning on Christmas Day, and Dean Winchester has already been up for hours. He managed to dislodge himself from the bed without waking anybody else up; a rare feat when all four of them share and Gabriel likes to drape himself across all the other three like he's an extra blanket.

Normally, Dean would want to stay snuggled in his pile of boyfriends for as long as humanly possible, but today, he’s celebrating, and he has a lot of preparing to do. He has a joint of ham defrosting on the countertop, an apple pie and a tray of sugar cookies are baking in the oven and a chocolate pie is being chilled in the fridge, because obviously the most important part of Christmas dinner is the dessert. Holly and mistletoe are strung up all around the bunker’s kitchen and living room, and Dean himself is wearing a bright blue sweater patterned with white snowflakes over his usual old jeans, and he’s wrapped himself in a string of twinkling multicolored fairy lights. He’s sitting at the kitchen table wrapping up a mountain of Christmas presents in sparkly wrapping paper, finishing each one off with a neat bow made of ribbon he curls himself, and he’s whistling ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ as he works.

Time runs away from him, and there’s too much to do and everyone else is sure to be waking up soon, so he speeds up his work, darting around the kitchen, leaving a present half wrapped every time his baking timer goes off, rushing to be ready on time. He barely has every present wrapped and stacked around the Christmas tree that’s tall enough to brush the ceiling before Cas shuffles into the kitchen, clad in fluffy slippers, a matching robe and a grumpy expression. Cas plonks himself down in a kitchen chair and rests his elbows on the table, messing up Dean’s artfully decorated fake snow.

“Morning, Dean,” Cas grunts.

“Morning? Just any morning? Do you even know what morning this is, Cas?”

Cas rolls his eyes, not wanting to put up with Dean’s shit this early in the morning. “No. Should I?”

“Holy shit,” comes a sleepy voice from the doorway, followed by a short laugh of disbelief. It’s Sam, wearing nothing but dark red boxer briefs, his chest still wet from the shower, toweling off his hair. “I thought – Dean, we haven’t celebrated Christmas for years. Not that this doesn’t look amazing, but some warning would have been great. I’d have got you presents too.”

Dean waves a hand. “Hey, I was happy to. I wanted to surprise all of you.”

And Cas is looking more interested too now, more awake now that he actually realizes what’s going on, or maybe it’s the smell of the new batch of piping hot cookies that’s helping to wake him. “I don’t tend to keep up much with the human dates of the year, but I suppose it does make sense with the weather. This is lovely, Dean, thankyou for doing this.”

Sam sits down at the table opposite Cas, and Dean pushes plates of bacon and eggs and cups of coffee in front of both of them, and they eat in a quiet, contented silence, because they’re excited to see what Dean has planned here, but there’s no hurry to start their day, especially not until the fourth member of their group shows up.

Gabriel finally makes an appearance when Cas is just polishing off his second plate of bacon. He stumbles into the kitchen wearing sweatpants and an oversized gray plaid shirt that could belong to any one of the other three, looking much the same as he does on any other morning, but he stops in the doorway, looking horrified, almost frightened, as his eyes dance around the room and he shrinks back into himself.

“Gabriel? Are you okay?” Sam blurts out, concerned, getting up to hurry over to the angel and comfort him.

Gabriel shakes his head and gestures around the room. “W-what’s this?”

“It’s Christmas Day. Dean thought it might be fun for the four of us to all celebrate together, since things are pretty quiet right now. Is there anything wrong with that?” Sam lays a soothing hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.

Gabriel shrugs off the hand, biting out his next words, addressing the whole room. "Do you wanna know when the last time I celebrated Christmas is?"

They all nod, because they know Gabriel's going to continue anyway. 

"It was the birth of Christ. That one was more than two thousand years ago, and I did kind of have a personal involvement in that. Since then? I’ve tried really hard to stay the fuck away. And now here you are with your fucking fake snow and your fucking fairy lights just forcing all this on me and I can’t do it, I can’t! You all can wake me up when it’s December 26, yeah?” He turns and starts walking away back towards their room.

"Gabriel, wait,” Cas calls after him, trying to placate him. “Dean put a lot of effort into setting this all up. Perhaps we should give it a chance.”

Gabriel frowns, and he almost wants to agree, because he can't remember a time when he wouldn't do anything those big blue eyes asked him for, but this? This is just too difficult.

“I’m sorry. I know you weren’t trying to upset me, but – Christmas, angels, Heaven, it’s all related. And it’s something I worked really hard to get away from. So you can see how that would bring back a lot of bad memories for me, right?”

This time, when Gabriel pads down the hallway to the bedroom, nobody shouts after him. They just sit at the breakfast table in silence surrounded by a mountain of glitter wondering what the hell they can do to make this better. They’ve only just got Gabriel back. If they lose him again over this…

It’s Dean who finally moves; pushing himself off the counter and walking towards their shared room. He doesn’t look back and he doesn’t ask Sam and Cas to follow him, but by silent agreement, they do anyway. It may have been Dean who arranged all the Christmas stuff, but they’re a team, and they’re going to deal with this, and try to fix this, together.

Dean knocks on the door, and he hopes the quiet snuffles coming from inside are a figment of his imagination. He pushes it open to see Gabriel curled up in the center of the bed, a blanket pulled up over his face to double as a tissue, shaking and crying.

Dean clenches a fist, angry at himself, feeling his heart ache as he watches Gabriel, and his feet instinctively carry him over to the bed to wrap the archangel up in his own arms and soothe him.

He’s quiet until Gabriel’s managed to calm down a bit. After a few minutes, Gabriel shifts in Dean’s embrace and pulls back just enough to look at Dean with eyes still wet with tears.

Then Dean speaks. “I didn’t just do this because it’s Christmas, you know. Today’s special for another reason.”

Sam’s eyes widen in recognition and it’s clear he knows exactly what Dean is talking about, but both of the angels look confused.

“Gabriel? You don’t remember?” Dean asks, his voice soft.

Gabriel shakes his head. “Been around for a long time, kiddo. Can’t expect me to remember everything.”

Sam chimes in at this point. “You’ve been living here for a year, Gabe. Christmas Day last year; that’s when you came back to us. I know we didn’t do anything special for it then, and we probably wouldn’t have done this year if it hadn’t been for you, but… I think that was the best Christmas present any of us ever got.”

“Yeah, including the year I bought Sam porn,” Dean snorts.

Sam ignores him. “So it’s Christmas. But it’s also an anniversary. And even if you don’t think Christmas is worth celebrating, I think you should celebrate us.”

_Had it really only been a year?_

Gabriel remembered coming back so clearly, though at the time he’d had no idea what exactly he was running to. After he’d appeared in Castiel’s dream as nothing more than a figment of Metatron’s imagination, he’d developed enough power to fight his way back to life; to force himself through the crushing depths of wherever Lucifer had sent him and appear back in the Elysian Fields hotel, gathering up the ashes of his wings into himself and feeling the embers of his Grace glow in his stomach in response.

His first instinct had been to look for Cas again, to try to help him with the Metatron business like he hadn’t quite managed to in the dream. But Gabriel was weak and Cas was well protected. He wasn’t an easy guy to find, and Gabriel supposed he was proud of him for that, but it didn’t make the long nights he’d spent shivering in the corners of highway rest stops, too drained to fly or even walk further, any easier.

And finally Gabriel had hit upon the idea of heading towards the places that were warded; the blind spots in his view of the world where he couldn’t at all sense what was going on, even if he exhausted the very last flicker of his power. He tried a few of these places and found nothing of note, and eventually found his way to Lebanon, Kansas, where there was an old, abandoned building waiting for him. His expectations were even lower than his mood as he trudged through snowdrifts, stopping every few paces to catch his breath and push his hair out of his face where snowdrops were clinging to it and getting in his eyes, and eventually he fell down on the doorstep in a heap. The wind battered into him uncomfortably and Gabriel thought that the inside probably wasn’t heated but it would at least be free from the impact of the weather. Maybe he’d be able to grab a few hours of sleep in there before the cold or his hunger or the shooting pains in his wings woke him up.

He reached up, grabbed onto the door handle and rattled it, surprised when it didn’t swing open immediately. Usually things tended to be warded or locked, but not both. When any amount of shaking and leaning against the door couldn’t open it, Gabriel used the handle to pull himself to his feet and try again. After several minutes, he’d made no progress, so in a last ditch attempt that he never expected to work, he rang the doorbell.

It swung open.

A flood of light and warmth engulfed Gabriel, radiating from the room beyond, and for a moment he thought he’d died again and was being taken finally back to Heaven by the tall figure hovering over him in the doorway; the one who was gathering Gabriel up into their arms and carrying him bridal style through a maze of passages. Gabriel closed his eyes against the bright lights hurting his head and he supposed for a moment that he didn’t even mind if he was being carried to Hell right now, because lying in these strong arms he was comfortable for the first time since coming back, and at least for now he was warm and dry.

Gabriel felt himself sink down into a soft surface, placed there far more gently than he’d maybe expected considering what he knew about reapers, and he supposed he must have passed out then, because the next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes and feeling well rested for the first time he could ever remember.

He had to blink a few times to be sure he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing.

He was lying curled up in a ball on a couch, covered in a thick blanket, and he seemed to be in some kind of living room. On a table next to him was a plate of food and drink, including a few sandwiches and a glass of water, but more importantly there was candy, Twizzlers and gummy worms and Skittles and Hershey’s Kisses. And then, when he shifted and stretched out where he lay, another figure appeared, getting up from where he sat just out of Gabriel’s line of sight, kneeling down next to him and resting a hand on his forehead to take his temperature. A kind, though concerned face, with hazel eyes filled with more compassion than Gabriel had ever seen in his life.

Sam Winchester.

Gabriel opened his mouth and rasped out, “’M I alive?”

Sam’s worried face broke into a smile and he nodded. “Yeah. You’re alive, just about. You’re okay. It’s safe here, and we’re gonna take care of you.”

“Dean’s here too?” Gabriel asked, despite the fact that Sam had a finger to Gabriel’s lips, trying to shush him.

“Dean, and Cas as well. We live here, all of us.”

Gabriel’s surprise must have shown in his eyes because Sam continued, “You didn’t know that? That’s not why you’re here?”

“Hoped Cas would be here. Been looking for him for months. But didn’t really think he would be. Just trying to crash somewhere for the night.”

Sam gave him a small smile that wasn’t pitying, just caring, and he threaded a hand into Gabriel’s hair and started to stroke. “You can see him soon, I promise you. He’s not going anywhere. Go back to sleep now, though. You need to get your strength back.”

Gabriel’s eyes closed easily under Sam’s soothing touch, and it wasn’t difficult for him to comply with Sam’s instructions.

Settling into the bunker had been relatively easy, especially considering the other three seemed to be trying as hard as possible to make things easy for Gabriel. They’d given him his own room, kept a cupboard well stocked with candy and other sugary snacks, kept him company as often as possible so that he didn’t get bored and gave him small tasks to do to help them out when they were preparing for hunts so that he felt like he was of some use to them. Gabriel had never stayed in one place for this length of time before, but he felt like he fit. There was a place for him here.

The building did seem to have a life of its own, though. Sometimes it seemed as though it was Sam’s room on the second left after the showers, and on other days it looked like it was Cas’. It was as though the rooms were moving around from day to day on purpose to confuse Gabriel. Then one day he saw Dean go in there with a towel wrapped around his waist after a shower, and- oh.

That actually made a lot of sense.

And now that Gabriel had seen it for the first time, he couldn’t help but notice it more often. Sam would be up late in the library researching for a case, and Cas would walk in there clad in a too-big pair of plaid pajamas, wrap his arms around Sam and kiss him on the cheek before heading to bed. Cas would be stood in the kitchen with a frown on his face as he tried to uncover the intricacies of what humans called a ‘dishwasher’ and Dean would stand in the doorway and watch him with an enraptured expression on his face, like Cas wrestling with the dishes was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Dean would arrive home from a solo hunt exhausted with one side of his face caked in blood and he wouldn’t even have time to get his coat off before Sam was sprinting through the hallways and attacking him with a hug that was too tight and went on for too long for the two of them to just be brothers.

Small moments. Little hints. Vague suggestions.

And then there were the bigger things; such as the time it was Dean’s birthday and Gabriel was woken up by the sound of three distinct, very loud moans coming from the room down the hall.

That morning while lying in bed, Gabriel took a brief interval during which he wasn’t thinking about much at all except for how it might feel to ride Sam while Dean jerked Gabriel and himself off and Cas sat behind them fingering Sam and sucking marks into Gabriel’s neck and shoulders. After he was done with those thoughts, he took a shower to clean himself up, and had a serious discussion with himself about what he was going to do about this whole situation.

Gabriel knew that he’d already received more than he ever expected or deserved just by being allowed to live here, by having Sam and Dean and Cas as his friends. If that was all he was ever given, he’d take it and he’d be happy with it. But still, he saw what the other three had together, the easy way their lives had just gravitated towards the others and collided in a shower of sparks that left them forever in orbit around each other. And Gabriel, still floating alone slightly off to the side, really wished that he could be a part of that.

He loved them. It wasn’t an easy thing for him to say, even inside his own mind, but it was the truth.

And he wanted to love them all in every way possible.

So he’d decided to take some chances, and see if anything came of it.

“Hey Dean,” Gabriel had said one day, while the two of them were lounging on the couch together laughing at a DVD of old Monty Python sketches. “My wings are giving me a lot of trouble today. I didn’t want to say anything, but they really hurt, and they keep getting worse.”

Dean stood up immediately, hitting pause on the remote. “I’ll go get you some of those extra strength painkillers.”

Gabriel shook his head. “No, I, uh, already took some. But could you… could you rub some of this cream into my back? Maybe a bit of a massage? I can’t reach right, and I really think it would help.”

Dean hesitated, glancing around the room as though looking for some kind of confirmation from Sam or Cas that he was allowed to do this. None came, possibly because the two of them were out on a hunt.

After thinking for a few moments, Dean nodded. “Yeah. Alright. I can do that.”

“Great!” Gabriel beamed, forgetting to pretend to be in intense pain for a moment, and he immediately stripped off his shirt, stretching a little more than he had to to show his body off to Dean.

Dean sat back down on the couch next to Gabriel and took the pot of cream he was offered. “Right. I, um, I don’t really know what I’m doing here…”

Gabriel resisted the urge to snort with derision and comment on the fact that he’d heard Dean give both Sam and Cas massages after hunts before, and instead just surreptitiously shifted closer to Dean, sitting crosslegged facing away from him to give Dean the best access to his back possible.

Gabriel shuddered when he felt Dean’s hands on his shoulders for the first time, from a combination of the coldness of the cream

“Sorry. I guess I should have warmed it up first,” Dean apologized, his voice wavering, and Gabriel suddenly realized that he might be nervous. He was used to giving massages to Sam and Cas, but he didn’t yet know what Gabriel was going to respond to.

Of course, Gabriel was more than happy to help him out. When Dean’s fingers dug into his shoulderblades for the first time, Gabriel let out a soft groan, smirking to himself when he felt Dean pause in his movements. But Gabriel was right in that it did seem to give Dean more confidence than before. So he kept going, pushing his shoulders back into Dean’s hands and tilting his head back in a variety of moans and whimpers. Gabriel snuck a look behind him at one point and yes, that was definitely a significant tent in Dean’s sweatpants to match his own. But he wouldn’t push it for now. Despite how amazing Dean’s hands felt working through the knots in his shoulders, and how much blood had rushed to Gabriel’s cock in the past few minutes, he had just about enough brainpower left that he knew that anything past the massage was a bad idea today. He’d just enjoy the thought of Dean dealing with his erection on his own, and let Dean take some time with the whole idea of asking Gabriel to join them before he started suggesting at anything further.

When Dean was done and he pressed play on the DVD again, Gabriel kept his shirt off and sunk into Dean’s side, relaxed and boneless and feeling like holding himself up on the couch was far too much effort. Dean didn’t seem to mind at all, although as soon as the title menu popped back up, Dean was making excuses in a higher pitched voice than usual and scampering off back to his room before Gabriel even had a chance to thank him.

Gabriel’s next challenge was to get Sam alone. After the last disaster when Sam had stayed back at the bunker and let Dean and Cas go out on a hunt together, and Dean had convinced Cas to fly the two of them over to Hawaii for a relaxing beach getaway, Sam didn’t often trust the two of them alone together, so Gabriel had to use other techniques. He waited until it was raining and then he offered to accompany Sam on a routine supply run to buy food and beer and car washing soap and new toothbrushes. He told Sam he’d meet him outside before quickly changing into an outfit consisting of nothing but a tight white T-shirt and a pair of running shorts.

“Shit. It’s colder than I thought,” Gabriel cursed, rubbing his own arms and feeling goosebumps as he caught up with Sam on the driveway.

Sam turned to look at him, taking in his appearance in disbelief. “Well, yeah, it’s February. What do you expect? Go back in and change.”

Gabriel shrugged. “Nah, I’ll be fine. Just took me a moment to get used to it, is all.”

Sam looked like he didn’t really believe Gabriel, but he knew how stubborn the archangel could be, so he shrugged and strode off down the path towards the town.

Halfway there, Gabriel started to shiver. He still had some semblance of powers which he could have used to keep himself warm, but instead he exaggerated the shivers, looking up at Sam with a pleading expression. “Sam. Sam, I’m cold.”

“No shit,” Sam scowled, rolling his eyes at Gabriel. “I warned you.”

“I know, you were right. I’m really sorry.” Gabriel widened his eyes and blinked innocently up at Sam. “Will you warm me up?”

Sam relented. “You can have my coat on the walk back if you behave yourself until then.”

Gabriel moved closer to Sam so that their arms brushed together with every step. “Alternative offer. What if we share your coat and we both get to stay warm all the time?”

“There’s hardly room. And it’d be too difficult to walk, especially when we’re carrying stuff.”

“But Sam, I’m very small. I don’t take up much room. It can’t be too difficult to figure out.” Gabriel tugged on Sam’s sleeve. “Please.”

“Fine. You’re terrible, you know,” Sam said, unzipping his coat for Gabriel to step in, and Gabriel paid very close attention to the way Sam’s eyes clearly darkened when he studied the way Gabriel’s white T-shirt had gone a little bit see through in the rain, his nipples standing out against the clinging fabric.

Gabriel pressed close to Sam inside the coat, which wouldn’t quite zip up around both of them, so Sam had to hold it closed with one gloved hand. Gabriel sought out Sam’s other hand with one of his own, squeezing it tight, all ready to use the excuse that he could still feel a breeze coming through the gap in the coat. But Sam didn’t even comment. He squeezed back and briefly leant his head down to rest on top of Gabriel’s, and they walked in a comfortable silence until they reached the store. It might have been Gabriel’s imagination, but it felt like by the time the two of them got there, it was Sam who was the least willing to break apart.

At that point, Gabriel thought that he’d successfully won over two people, which only left one. With Cas, he had to take a different approach. Cas would see right through any games he played, but maybe he could appeal to the things the two of them had in common…

Gabriel waited until Cas spent a night in the bunker alone. When Cas was away on a hunt, it was easy for him to fly back to the bunker to spend the night so that nobody was lonely, but this got a little harder when it was just Sam and Dean out together, and they were somewhere too far to drive. Cas stayed up later than he normally would, huddled up on the couch clutching a pillow to his chest and trying to distract himself with a book, answering everything Gabriel said in short, clipped sentences.

Gabriel retired to his bedroom first, but stayed up with his ear pressed against the door, waiting for Cas to follow suit. Once he did, Gabriel counted out half an hour in seconds, giving Cas enough time for settle for the night but hopefully not enough time to fall asleep, and then he got up and knocked on Cas’ door, pushing it open gently.

The room was still and dark, but Castiel opened his eyes and sat up when he saw the crack of light filter in from the door. “Sam? Dean?” he murmured in a voice rough with sleep.

“No. I’m sorry, it’s just me,” Gabriel said, pushing the door open fully and standing in the entryway, keeping his arms wrapped around himself so that he looked as small and vulnerable as possible.

“Oh. Is everything alright?” Cas asked, and Gabriel actually felt bad for a moment, like he’d given Cas false hope that it was going to be Sam and Dean returning early.

But he was here now, and leaving would just give Cas more things to worry about. “Yeah. No. I can’t sleep, Cas.”

“No, neither can I. It’s still a confusing process to me.”

Gabriel pushed his way a little further into the room. “Yeah. I thought you’d understand. I’m not used to having to sleep, so I haven’t got the hang of it yet. But I thought – maybe I could stay here? Maybe it would be easier if we were together.”

Cas looked towards his bed, and then back to Gabriel. “You want to sleep in my bed?”

“Yeah. I mean, we’re the only two here. Seems a bit pointless if neither of us can sleep and we’re in completely different rooms.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Cas gave in. “Come on. Don’t steal all the pillows.”

Cas clearly knew him too well, but Gabriel supposed he was willing to sacrifice a few pillows if it meant he could potentially get what he wanted in the long term. He climbed into the bed, which was a warm, messy pile of blankets, exactly what a bed should be. Cas got in on the opposite side, facing Gabriel but leaving distance between them. “Goodnight, Gabriel.”

Gabriel shuffled across the sheets until he was pressed against Cas, wrapping an arm around him and burying his head in Cas’ chest. “Night, Cas.”

Cas tensed when he first felt the other angel latch onto him, and Gabriel pulled back just enough to look into Cas’ eyes, blinking up at him pleadingly. And then Cas relaxed, bringing one of his own arms over Gabriel’s waist and tangling their legs together.

Amazingly, Gabriel seemed to have hit upon something perfect, because it took all of two minutes before he felt Cas’ breathing even out beneath him, the steady rise and fall of Cas’ chest telling Gabriel that he was asleep.

It took Gabriel a little longer to fall asleep himself, mostly because he spent the first hour willing himself not to get hard against Cas’ thigh (it had been a really long time since he’d had any kind of action, and it wasn’t at all Gabriel’s fault that the vessel Cas had got his hands on was really fucking hot) but eventually he settled down into the comfort and safety of Cas’ embrace, lulled to sleep by the soft tickle of Cas’ stubble against his forehead.

It was only a week after Gabriel’s best ever night’s sleep to date when the other three called him into the living room for a serious talk, all of them sitting in a line on the sofa, a wooden chair left out for Gabriel opposite them.

“So, Gabriel,” Sam, sat in the middle, begins, looking awkward. “The three of us have something we were hoping to talk to you about. An offer to make, if you will. And it’s completely up to you, and if you choose to decline you will still be more than welcome to stay here, and-“

Gabriel launched himself up off the chair, catapulted himself onto Sam’s lap, grabbed Sam’s face in his and kissed him thoroughly.

“I- I suppose that’s a yes, then?” Sam manages to say between pants after Gabriel pulled away and sat back on Sam’s knees, a self-satisfied grin on his face.

“Yeah, I thought I’d save you from a difficult conversation. I’m useful for that kind of stuff. It’s why you keep me around.”

“That’s really not the only reason, Gabriel.” Dean leaned over to steal a kiss of his own.

Gabriel tilted his head back and purred at the affection. “It’s not? Well, do feel free to tell me the other reasons.”

Dean froze up, still scared of talking about his feelings, but Gabriel was okay with that. He didn’t need to hear it now; they’d have plenty of time in the future to talk about these things. Instead, Gabriel just stretched his head back as far as it would go, giving easy access for Cas to lean down and give him the most gentle brush of lips on lips.

Gabriel hadn’t been kissed in years before that day, and now he’d been kissed three times, and all of the kisses had been different. Sam’s had been hard and passionate and needy and Dean’s had been deep and exploratory and and Cas’ had been slow and uncertain and almost teasing.

They had all been perfect, and Gabriel could never, ever have chosen a favorite.

And from that day forwards, the four of them had all been together. Gabriel healed, as much as he was ever going to, and he started going out on hunts with the rest of them as an equal. His interview technique took a while to perfect but his knowledge of the lore surpassed even Sam’s, considering how much of it he’d lived through, and he soon felt like he was just as much a part of the team as anyone. Every night when they weren’t out hunting, Gabriel would sleep in Sam, Dean and Cas’ bed, and every time he did that he’d sneak in a few more of his possessions. He didn’t have many, and it took barely any time at all before he was completely moved in, and the others either didn’t notice or didn’t complain when he never went back to his old room at all.

Gabriel tried not to think about it all too much, just in case thinking about it ruined it, but he couldn’t remember ever being this happy.

But now he sits in front of Dean, listening to the information that it’s been a year since he collapsed on the bunker step and was rescued and brought inside by the three most important people in his life. A whole year. Only a year.

Sam and Cas have dropped down to the bed too by this point, and Sam strokes Gabriel’s hair as Cas presses soft kisses to his neck, none of them forcing him into anything, just giving him time to reach his own decisions.

And finally, after Gabriel’s replayed every single moment of his time with the three of them in his mind, he speaks.

“Are there presents?”

The others let out a collective laugh of relief. “Of course there’s presents. Loads of them. Take you hours to get through them all,” Dean promises.

“Okay. I suppose we can do Christmas if there’s presents there,” Gabriel says in a shaky voice, and even though none of them says it, they all know that by ‘presents’ Gabriel means ‘my boyfriends’.

Sam carries Gabriel back into the living room, the same way he did last Christmas when he found a broken Gabriel on his doorstep, and Dean puts on a red fluffy hat and plays Santa Claus as he distributes presents to each of the other three, watching their faces burst into expressions of surprise and amazement as they open them.

“You don’t have any presents to open,” Cas frowns when they’re done.

“Hey, seeing you guys have a great day is more than enough of a present for me,” Dean says, poking his tongue out to make it seem like a joke. He’s better with feelings than he was a few months ago, but he’s still not quite there.

Cas shakes his head, and he beckons Sam and Gabriel over, and they have a quiet, whispered conversation, before reaching a decision.

“As touching as that is, Deano, we still don’t think it’s fair,” Gabriel smirks, and Cas snaps his fingers so that a small pile of presents appears in Dean’s lap.

Dean looks down at the presents, and then at Cas, then back to the presents, then back to Cas. He points a finger at him accusingly. “That’s cheating!”

Sam, Cas and Gabriel dissolve into laughter.

“I mean it!” Dean challenges. “I spent months buying presents for you all, driving out to places all over the country to get you the perfect presents, wrapped them perfectly, even curled the freaking ribbon, and you just snap them into existence?”

But he’s not really mad. He’s too busy eyeing the presents with a glint in his eye, and after a moment, he gives up and tears into them.

After presents comes lunch, and after lunch comes all four of them trying to cram into one armchair as they watch Dean’s new collection of Christmas movies that’s appeared in their DVD cabinet overnight. They sing along to the songs in the soundtracks and exchange lazy kisses between scenes Gabriel can’t tell where one of his boyfriends ends and another begins and he loves it that way.

All things considered, Gabriel thinks this is a definite improvement on his last Christmas, over two thousand years ago, and he thinks that even if it’s the only other one he ever gets, he’s eternally grateful to the three people surrounding him for making it so.

They’re grateful to him too, for being their reason to make the day special.

Sam, Dean, Castiel and Gabriel celebrate Christmas every year from that point on, but if you look closely, you’ll see that it means something different to them. Their Christmas tree isn’t decorated with the standard baubles and stars; instead, they clip all the photographs they’ve taken of each other in the past year to each branch, creating a collage of memories and a celebration of yet another year they’ve spent together. They take Christmas not as a holiday to honor some great cosmic event that changed the entire world, but as a personal holiday to remember everything the four of them have done for each other, and how lucky they are to have found the things they’ve found together.

They take it for themselves.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas everyone <3 come talk to me at **casandsip.tumblr.com**


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